"The perils of uncontrolled power are perennial reminders of the virtues of a democratic society. But modern democracy requires a more realistic philosophical and religious basis, not only in order to anticipate and understand the perils to which it is exposed, but also to give it a more persuasive justification. Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness (1945). 

Happy Birthday: Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables, handpicked for their incorruptibility. The release of his memoir The Untouchables, months after his death, launched several screen portrayals establishing a posthumous fame for Ness as an incorruptible crime fighter.

In March 1930, attorney Frank J. Loesch of the Chicago Crime Commission asked President Herbert Hoover to take down Al Capone. Agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, working under Elmer Irey and Special Agent Frank J. Wilson of the Intelligence Unit, were already investigating Capone and his associates for income tax evasion. In late 1930, Attorney General William D. Mitchell, seeking a faster end to the case, implemented a plan devised by President Hoover for sending a small team of Prohibition agents, working under a special United States attorney, to target the illegal breweries and supply routes of Capone while gathering evidence of conspiracy to violate the National Prohibition Act (informally known as the Volstead Act). U.S. attorney George E.Q. Johnson, the Chicago prosecutor directly in charge of both the Prohibition and income tax investigations of Capone, chose the 27-year-old Ness (now assigned to the Justice Department) to lead this small squad.

With corruption of Chicago's law enforcement agents endemic, Ness went through the records of all Prohibition agents to create a reliable team (initially of six, eventually growing to about ten) later known as "The Untouchables." Raids against illegal stills and breweries began in March 1931. Within six months, Ness's agents had destroyed bootlegging operations worth an estimated $500,000 (almost $9.9 million in 2022) and representing an additional $2 million ($39.5 million in 2022) in lost income for Capone; their raids would ultimately cost Capone in excess of $9 million ($178 million in 2022) in lost revenue. The main source of information for the raids was an extensive wiretapping operation.

In 1931, a member of Al Capone's gang promised Ness that he would receive $2,000 every week ($36,684.27 in 2022) if he ignored their bootlegging activities. Ness refused the bribe. Failed attempts by members of the Chicago Outfit to bribe or intimidate Ness and his agents inspired Charles Schwarz of the Chicago Daily News to begin calling them "untouchables". George Johnson adopted the nickname and promoted it to the press, establishing it as the squad's unofficial title.

The efforts of Ness and his team inflicted major financial damage on Capone's operations and led to his indictment on 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act in June 1931. Federal judge James H. Wilkerson prevented that indictment from coming to trial, instead pursuing the tax evasion case built by George Johnson and Frank Wilson. On October 17, 1931, Capone was convicted on three of 22 counts of tax evasion. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison and, following a failed appeal, began his sentence in 1932. On May 3, 1932, Ness was among the federal agents who took Capone from the Cook County Jail to Dearborn Station, where he boarded the Dixie Flyer to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary—the only time the two men are known to have met in person.

Seemed appropriate...... [grin]

Just Finished Reading: Nomads – The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World by Anthony Sattin (FP: 2022) [310pp] 

Go back far enough in our collective human history and we were all nomads. The few of us who existed in that long gone pre-historic age wandered the Earth hunting, fishing and generally getting on with our lives. Gradually, for a number of reasons, a few and then a few more, moved less or less often then, gradually ceased moving around and settled. From that point on the tension between the mobile and the settled has only grown. Of course, as we know, history is written by the victors but in this case there’s an added twist. Nomads, as a rule, leave behind no monuments, few artifacts and even few documents. By their very nature they travel light and have a light impact on the world. The settled, by contrast, have the ability, the numbers and often the wealth to build monuments that outlast their civilisations, leave behind a plethora of objects wherever they live and leave behind contracts, bills of sale and letters to loved ones. It's not surprising therefore that our nomadic ancestors and more their modern descendants have received a poor press when they received the attention a press at all. The author of this intriguing book does what he can (and does it well) to address that issue. 

The problem, as alluded to already, is that much of what we know about ancient, and more recent, nomadic tribes comes from the settled who had direct or indirect contact with them. As you might imagine much of the ‘press’ has been negative – sometimes with good reason but often without. Nomad all too often is synonymous with barbarian – those that lack sophistication or the trappings of civilisation. Unsurprisingly they are looked down upon, exploited, harassed and feared. Yet, throughout our long history, they have produced some awesome artifacts and have ruled over vast lands, empires and trade routes that shaped our entire planets history. Ignoring or sidelining nomadic people is telling only half the story of mankind at best. Despite the fact that the settled ‘civilised’ have triumphed over the nomadic doesn’t mean that they have contributed little (or nothing) of note nor that they can be ‘disappeared’ from the history books without doing real damage to our knowledge or understanding of humanity. 

This was definitely an interesting read, looking as it does from the ‘other side’ of history and focusing on those who move rather than exclusively on those who stand still (geographically speaking). The interaction of the nomad and the city-dweller is an important one and I think this book makes a creditable contribution to understanding that process. I certainly learnt a lot and by the end could more appreciate the value of those who chose to remain with their herds and their horses whilst others moved inside walls. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in a very different way of life. 

Just Finished Reading: Desert Raiders by Lucien Soulban (FP: 2007) [245pp] 

The distress signal was strong. Strong enough to kill the receiving psyker and incapacitate three others. An Imperial Guard unit had been eliminated, and naval units were dispatched to find out who, where and how. Two battered Tallarn regiments, barely recovered from previous battles, had been dropped on the barren desert planet – previously unknown and presently unregistered – to investigate. Within hours of their arrival the orbital fleet was directed to another emergency and assured the Imperial Guard units that further supplies would be dropped in 90 days. After months of base building, patrolling and growing tension between factions with a long and troubled history contact with the fleet and Sector command had not been established. For now at least they were on their own. With supplies running low and infighting becoming a real possibility, a sudden arrival from space manages to concentrate minds. It would certainly explain why they had been abandoned and why their supply drop was so overdue. Two hundred kilometres away in the deep desert a ship had arrived that drove fear into the hearts of the most experienced warriors amongst them. They were about to face the horror of the galaxy, the relentless force with only one aim, one mission, one drive – to feed. The Tyranids had arrived... 

This is my second Warhammer 40K novel. As much as I enjoyed my first experience with the novel side of things (I’ve been playing the PC game versions for years) I enjoyed this even more. It did start rather slowly with lots of good character building, world building and the expected sprinkling of 40K lore but I forgave all of that once the action started. The Tryranids are a truly terrifying species – imagine the xenomorph from Aliens except there are THOUSANDS of them and some of them are HUGE, some can fly or burrow through solid rock and some of them carry guns firing living hungry bullets – so the carnage was sometimes quite breathtaking. The second half of the novel, except for short breaks and breathing spaces, was almost constant combat so if you’re put off by that kind of Sci-Fi based fighting this is definitely not the book for you! If, however, you’re a fan of Combat SF then this will definitely tick ALL of your boxes. 

I actually wasn’t expecting all that much from this novel sequence. I suppose that I assumed that they’d just be disposable fun (for an existing 40K fan) but I’ve been surprised by how creditable the writing is over and above the action and the lore. The characterisation here was particularly good with respectable nuance and believable backstories and motivations. Some of it was clearly taken from the existing split in Islam but it still worked. Although there’s ZERO chance that I’ll get around to reading even a reasonable percentage of the books in this series produced so far, I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from this grim dark universe. Recommended for fans of 40K and of combat SF in general. 

Happy Birthday: Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008) was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television programmes. Bagpuss, Pingwings, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Pogles' Wood, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with collaborator, artist and puppet maker Peter Firmin. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC from the 1950s to the 1980s. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children's television programme of all time.

Clangers (usually referred to as The Clangers) is a British stop-motion animated children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. They speak only in a whistled language, and eat green soup (supplied by the Soup Dragon) and blue string pudding. The programmes were originally broadcast on BBC1 between 1969 and 1972, followed by a special episode which was broadcast in 1974.

The series was made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (who was the show's writer, animator and narrator) and Peter Firmin (who was its modelmaker and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters, and Joan Firmin, his wife, knitted and "dressed" them. The music, often part of the story, was provided by Vernon Elliott.

A third series, narrated by Monty Python actor Michael Palin, was broadcast in the UK in June 2015 on the BBC's CBeebies TV channel, gaining hugely successful viewing figures, following on from a short special broadcast by the BBC earlier that year. The new programmes are still made using stop-motion animation (instead of the computer-generated imagery which had replaced the original stop-motion animation in revivals of other children's shows such as Fireman Sam, Thomas & Friends and The Wombles). Further new series were made in 2017 and 2019.

Clangers won the British Academy Children's Award for Pre-School Animation in 2015.

[I LOVED The Clangers growing up - although I was probably a bit 'old' for them. I *think* either my Mum or my Nan knitted me one (or that could've been for my sister.... possibly.....]

Just Finished Reading: Footmarks – A Journey into Our Restless Past by Jim Leary (FP: 2024) [238pp] 

The problem with digging up the deep past is that everything is static, dead, unmoving. Even Roman roads, ancient pathways, and drover's lanes are empty. Of course, when they were in daily use, they were anything but – that's the rub. How do you excavate a world on the move?  

That is the interesting question at the heart of this often-fascinating book. Humans move around a LOT and this was true thousands, indeed tens of thousands of years ago as it is today – except without continent spanning aircraft or ocean spanning liners. For much of our history if you wanted to go any great distance you walked there or, if you were lucky or rich, rode there on horseback. This is what we, and humanities predecessors, did. We got up and we walked out of Africa and across Eurasia and into both the America’s and Australia (although the last bit of that particular journey was by boat). 

There is a great deal of (growing) evidence for our mobile past from fossilised footprints (fascinating in and of themselves), to the very earliest bridges, river fords and more permanent constructions. To our very earliest boats of wood and leather to ocean going Viking craft. We have genetic evidence of grand movements of people, evidence of the spread of ideas, technology and burial beliefs over thousands of years and thousands of miles. All of this brings the dead, static, unmoving past to a more mobile, more visible, more human clarity. 

This is definitely a very different way of looking at the deep past. Despite some very good writing it did take me a little while to ‘reorientate’ myself (pun obviously intended!) to the author's vision but once I did a great deal of his arguments made perfect sense. Humans move – a LOT. So, viewing artifacts and structures with that in mind help us to understand why roads are where they are and go where they go. It helps to explain pilgrimages and religious sites, it helps to explain why coins and other artifacts are located in rivers, wells and other locations. It even explains the location of gates, doorways and walls. Seeing places without an occupying human community is only half the picture. This book helps being able to at least imagine, if not actually ‘see’ the other half. Full of interesting ideas, observations and discoveries. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in our very human mobile past.     

Happy International Unicorn Day................!!!

According to research conducted by the Ideal Home Show, UK adults have an average of 12.6 unread books in their homes.

TWELVE..... Point SIX.

Really? TWELVE...... POINT SIX......? 

Are these people even trying? I bought more than that last TUESDAY. It's entirely possible that I might buy that many TODAY..... It's entirely possible that I might have TWELVE POINT SIX.... HUNDRED books purchased and unread in my house... which means that there's a LARGE number of people out there - in the UK - with NO unread books and possibly no books at ALL in there house.....

But I'm willing to see myself as a bizarre outlier.... Which begs the question: Just how many unread books do you have in YOUR house today?

Might explain why some people think that reading is 'boring'....?

Just Finished Reading: Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon (FP: 2005) [254pp] 

They knew it was a possibility, but the call-up papers still came as a shock. The Emperor needed two new regiments and 17-year-old Arvin Larn would be joining one of them. His parents knew, even if he survived his service, that they would never see him again. After four months of basic training Arvin and the other 2,000 men were told where they were needed most. A Planetary Defence Force had revolted, and it was their job to restore order. But only days into the journey their ship was diverted on the orders of Sector Command. A typo by a tired clerk had redirected Arvin’s company of 200 men to quite a different world. Dropped into a battle between Imperial Guard units and alien Orks Arvin’s transport is shot out of the sky and crash-lands in No-Mans Land. Escaping by luck more than judgement he is assigned to join a combat fire team defending a crumbling trench. After recovering from the shock of being alone, far from home and on the wrong planet Arvin grows increasingly annoyed that his team mates only refer to him as ‘new fish’. But his complaints fall on deaf ears. No one is going to bother learning his name until he proves himself and shows them that he can beat the odds – the odds that say his life expectancy on the front line is 15 hours. If he can beat that time, they’ll start using his given name and might even give him some of the spare equipment they have to hand. Knowing the Orks as his team does, it's going to be quite the challenge! 

I’ve been playing Warhammer 40K for a LONG time (on the PC rather than the traditional tabletop game) but this is my first book in the set/series - 316 books and counting. With most games I’ve not overly interested in the background story or lore and 40K is no exception. Obviously, you’re going to pick up something whilst playing and I picked up quite a bit more from some of my gaming buddies who are MUCH more interested in lore than I am. The rest of my knowledge comes from watching various long & short YouTube videos. Although not exactly lore-free (how could it be?) this slim volume was pretty lore-lite so can easily be read by anyone even those completely unfamiliar with the 40K universe. It actually read like a WW1/Vietnam cross and, although the Orks were not exactly irrelevant, they could have been replaced by almost any other enemy without impacting on the story. Most of the focus was on Arvin himself but there were digressions with other characters such as an artillery officer and the sector commander which both rounded out the story and added some lore-lite background. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The novel was reasonably fast paced, full of interesting fleshed out characters (wonderfully cynical after 10 years of fighting over a patch of mud) and some pretty good action/battle scenes. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this grim-dark universe soon. 

Happy Birthday to Me. 65 today......!!!

Thinking About: Dinosaurs 

If you’re anything like me (but then again who is?) you’ll have a favourite dinosaur. When I was growing up, maybe around 9 or 10, I had a plastic model Stegosaurus that I’d put together. I really loved that guy. For some reason I painted it pink with, if memory serves, grey top ‘fins’. I can only imagine I did that through basic ignorance coupled with the fact that those colours might have been the only ones available to me at the time. For some reason, a movie appearance maybe, my love of all things land-based dino shifted from the Stegosaurus to the Triceratops where it has remained to this day. Much, much later the original movie Jurassic Park introduced the world to the cool Velociraptors – although as I understand it MUCH bigger than the real ones – and, of course, the half-blind T-Rex (yeah, right) - but neither of these impressive creatures shifted my admiration of the humble Triceratops. 

Typically, I split my favourite dino’s into Land, Sea and Air (because it's me and I can). Aquatic dinosaurs are very cool, you could even say mega-cool, in part because of their size. Having all that water around to support your weight made gaining said weight quite easy, just ask the whales while they’re still around. In this category I have a favourite and an almost favourite which, growing up, occasionally flipped places. My favourite is the Plesiosaur – just think the standard idea of the Loch Ness Monster – with its LONG bendy neck and impressive paddle ‘feet’. My almost favourite runner-up is the more fish/dolphin like Ichthyosaur with the impressive line of teeth and equally impressive name.  

Moving into the air my initial favourite was the Pterosaur, a kind of living glider with a BIG beak and equally big crest to compensate. Who couldn’t love that ugly mug... Things, and love affairs move on however, and these days my heart is all for the poetically tongue twistingly named Archaeopteryx. I can certainly see why it was seen as a fake, having bird and reptile elements but I think it's a pretty cool creature and, if such things ever became possible (for real, rather than the fake versions being talked about today – and showcased in Jurassic Park) and they could actually bring such a creature back I’d definitely have one (or two) as pets. They’d certainly keep the rodent population down if released into the wild! 

So.... Do you have a favourite dinosaur or are you a normal sane person?  

What a BRILLIANT cover design... [lol]

Happy Birthday: Agneta Åse Fältskog (born 5 April 1950) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and a former member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 self-titled debut album. She rose to international stardom in the 1970s as a member of ABBA, which is one of the best-selling music acts in history. She is the youngest member of ABBA, and the only one born in the 1950s.

After the unofficial break-up of ABBA in December 1982, she renewed success later in the decade as a solo artist with three albums and a leading role in a movie. She became reclusive in the 1990s, avoiding outside publicity and residing on the Stockholm County island of Ekerö.

Fältskog stopped recording music for 16 years until she released a new album, My Colouring Book, in 2004. She returned in 2013 with A, her highest UK charting solo album to date. ABBA has since reformed, and Fältskog has resumed her previous role with the group.

Just Finished Reading: First Steps – How Walking Upright Made Us Human by Jeremy Desilva (FP: 2021) [274pp] 

I have LONG been interested in Evolution since reading Dawkins back in my 20’s. Not surprisingly, I’m particularly interested in the evolution of my own species. One of the most signature differences between ourselves and our Ape cousins is the fact that we walk upright, we’re bipedal whereas the other apes move around, by and large, on all four limbs. So, what gives – and more importantly what’s the advantage of two legs over four. 

At first glance moving around on two legs rather than four is a distinct DISADVANTAGE. Not only can chimpanzees, for example, run much faster than we can they can also climb much faster than us. But with such obvious disadvantages how did we compete successfully with similar quadrupedal ancestors in the deep past? What use is two legs after all is said and done? One advantage is that an upright posture allows a much better survey of the ground locally. Seeing threats further off allows even slow pre-humans to make it to the nearest cover. Furthermore being ‘hands-free’ allows bipeds not only to carry things that our quadruped ancestors couldn’t - allowing more food to be carried over longer distances as well as the ability to throw things accurately over distances to ward off predators and enemies alike – which must have come in very handy at times (no pun intended!).  

Along with the advantages there were, inevitably, downsides. Standing upright meant a compromise between energy efficient walking – chimps typically expend FOUR times as much energy per mile travelled – and the ability to give birth relatively easily, most especially as our brains and heads expanded over the millennia. This was, and still is, a significant risk in being female. Interestingly, the difficulty of per-human birthing might very well have led to group co-operation which boosted not only individual survival rates but boosted the evolutionary fitness of the entire species. 

As the process of evolution has, of necessity, to work with what it has and modify it as it can, compromises must be made – even beyond the restrictions in the birth canal. Even today humans die by falling much more than you’d think. Added to that is the commonality of sprained ankles, dislocated kneecaps and torn ligaments. We are a cobbled together species and our bipedalism is no exception. 

I really enjoyed this book. Not only did I learn a great deal about our pre-human ancestors, but I realised that the number of them has increased greatly since I last checked in. Some of them were familiar (now much more familiar) to me but some were quite new. Another thing I found very interesting indeed were later chapters on the impact of shoe wearing and the health benefits of walking – both mental and physical. It made me want to put the book down and go for a walk! If you have a general interest in human evolution or a particular interest in the development of upright walking or even walking in general, this is definitely the book for you. Highly recommended and a highlight of the year.  

It's a *start*.... [lol]

Happy International Children's Book Day....!

Welcome to April! As its my birthday later this month, April has been designated (by me obviously) Book Month here @ SaLT which means that you might notice a 'slight' uptick in book related posts. I hope that you enjoy them.